For many years before the arrival of the motor car donkeys were the mainstay of St. Helena transport. Nobody knows how many there were in their heyday (or should that be hay day?) but they show up in many of the earliest pictures of the island and continue to appear well into the 1970s. The photo on the right was taken in 1968.

There are still a few who prefer donkeys as their means of goods transport, and it is not yet uncommon to meet someone leading a donkey laden with freshly cut vegetation on its way home.

Those donkeys that no longer work a mostly kept in the Casons area, though some feral donkeys have elected to live in the almost appropriate area of Horse Pasture. The donkeys are generally friendly and approachable. The one below was photographed enjoying the early morning sunshine.